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AM ADDRESS, 



By Hi. XJ. K."JS_A."VIS, 



AT THE TEXAS STATE FAIR, 



Held at Austin, Octcter 29th. 1878. 



Southward the tides of commerce run, 
"From lands of snow to lands of sun." 



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ST. LOUISi, MU. ; 
Pkinted by Woodward, Tieunan & Hale, 

i>;t:-. 



THZIE 



North and the South: 



AN ADDRESS, 



By L. TJ. KylEJ^-V^IS, 



AT THE TEXAS STATE FAIR, 



Held at Austin, October 29th, 1878. 



Southward the tides of commerce run, 
'\From lands of snow to lands of sun." 



ST. LOUIS, MO. : 

I'KINTED BY WOODWAUD, TiERNAN & llALE, 

1S7S. 



James Wallace Paramore, 

President St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. 

A MAN OK THE BUIGHTEST -VN'D CLEAREST COMMERCIAL VIEWS, AND SUPERIOR 
ORGANIZING AND EXECUTIVE TALENTS, WHO HA.S MARKED OUT AND 
FAITHFULLY FOLLOWED A POLICY WHK H 18 BINDING THE 
NORTH AND .SOUTH TOGETHEI! IN COMMON COMMER- 
CIAL interests; who has cheated 

NEW AND unsurpassed FACILITIES FOR THE HANDLING OF THE GREAT STAPLE 
OF THE SOUTH ; AND WHO HAS— MORE THAN ANY OTHER MAS- 
ASSISTED TO RAISE THE COTTON TRADE OF ST. LOUIS FROM 
INSIGNIFICANCE TO GREATNESS; AND WHOSE 
SOCIAL AND CO.MMERCIAL VIRTUES HAVE THE .\DDED BRHiHTNESS OF HIGH 
INTELLIliENCE AND UNSWERVING INTEtiRITY; 



THESE PAGES, 



WHICH TREAT OF COMMON INTERESTS AND OF CO.AIMON ENDS, ARE 
FAITHFULLY' INSCRIBED BY 

THE Al'THOR. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I come before you under auspicious circumstances. We are in 
the midst of a great fructifying time in our national life. Every- 
where over this l)road land, over this Avide continent are to be 
seen the unmistakeable evidences of approaching prosperity to our 
country, evidences that we shall bound forward with unexampled 
rapidity to wealth and power. 

Having written and said much al)out the commercial destiny of 
Saxon America, southward on the western hemisphere, I was anxious 
to visit and make personal observations of regions lying upon the 
Gulf of Mexico ; and especially at this time when the President 
and Senator Bhiine liad both visited Minnesota to give a word of 
personal encouragement to the people of the North-west, I feel 
that an injustice has been done the South, for no man from the 
North, since the close of the civil strife, save Horace Greeley, has 
come to the South to mingle with her people and " clasp hands 
across the bloody chasm," and give words of encouragement for 
the building uj) of the great states upon the Gulf of Mexico. This 
fact, more than any other, has induced me to come to your great 
commonwealth. It was my desire to see your people, your country, 
your homes, and declare unto you a few fundamental truths relating 
to our commercial and political destiny. I am, therefore, here to 
speak to you concerning a vast future of commerce and civilization, 
the beginning of which now confronts us, and is already heralded 
by the j)r()spcrity and promise of 3'Our own people. I am here to 
present underlying facts concerning your state, and to consider 
her as an integral part in the federal family, and the destiny that 
awaits her as a political organism, as well as Inn- relations to co- 
terminous countries on the western hemisphere ; I am also here to 
speak to you of the material and political interests of that physical 
section of our country known as the valley of the Mississippi, 
and of which I count Texas a part ; and I am iiere to talk to you 
concerning the supreme importance of maintaining our vast fabric 
of constitutional and continental government, as 

"Tho miiihtiest of the mighty means 
On which the arm of progress leans." 



— 6 — 

I do not, however, come to you as a politician to urge duties on you 
that I would not urge in any other part of the Union, or to im})ly 
infidelity on your part that I would not apply to the people of any 
other state in the federal family. I make no distinction, 1 have no 
prejudice, no special locality to serve in contradistinction to every 
part of the entire country. 

The present discussion will relate more especially to the new thoughts 
I propose to suggest, and which I belie^'e to be sul:)jects of the 
highest consideration to the people of the North and South. 

We stand at a pivot point in our national history. A century has 
Tolled away into the past since our fathers proclaimed the Declara- 
tion of American Independence. We have learned the lessons taught 
by the old century, both of folly and wisdom, and have profited 
thereby. A new century now confronts us ; a century pregnant 
with untried and unsolved problems of civilization and government. 
We enter upon the new century with more experience than did our 
fathers when they founded the American nation, and we have been 
carrying out their purpose of continental empire. The work they 
inaugurated is not yet complete, but the end is sure. 

Lamartine said: "the revolutions of the human mind are slow 
like the eras in the life of nations." This may be essentially true 
in respect to European and Asiatic nations, and their civilizations, 
but less api3licable to our people — the American people. 

In this land of ours, the rapidity with which the transition, from 
feebly connected colonial federal associations, to an independent 
nation has taken place, almost makes the span of life, assigned by 
the psalmist, a link between the political and social condition of two 
ages. The stories of childhood days are the recollections of frontier 
life. Yesterday this continent was a wilderness without people and 
without law, to-day it is over-arched by a Constitution created and 
maintained by federated nations, and teeming with a population of 
more than forty millions. So great has been the change from the 
social life on the frontier, and the rude forms of mechanical contrivances 
that the boy born in the wilderness and schooled in adversity is now 
an active worker in the midst of a ripe civilization. Skilled artizans 
with improved implements have changed the wigwam to a palace, 
and erected cities of civilization on the smoke-clad ruins of the 
aborigines ; and now we know the generation with which we have 
touched hands to be quite different in practical life and social senti- 
ment from that generation with which we are cotemporary. The 



— 7 — 

rapidity of the elningc from frontier life — from the imperfect 
mechaiiieal contrivances and imperfect modes of education seems 
ahnost lilvc a dream — a metamorphosis through which our people 
had passed. The school boy stories of the hardships and vicissitudes 
of our revolutionary forefathers, in the struggle for an independent 
nationality on this continent, pass before our vision to-day like a 
panorama of empire, and those of you Avho nestled around your 
mother's knees a generation or more ago, know that your mothers 
were quite difl'erent in practical life and social relations from the 
mothers of to-da}', and when viewed either from a social or political 
stand point, we are impelled to the conviction that public life to-day 
is quite ditferent from Avhat it was at the opening of the first century 
in our national history. 

In the very nature of things colonial life engendered in the 
American people a pioneering, a restless, roving, unsettled habit of 
life. So much has been the influence of this condition that science 
has already said that the American people have no home. Phrenology 
points out that all other people on the earth love home better than 
the American i)eoi)le. On the American head the organ of inhabita- 
tiveness is smaller than on the head of the people of any other 
nation. Perhaps this peculiarity of organization was essential to 
the acc()nq)lishment of the civil conquest and peopling of a continent, 
for in no former age was the pioneer confronted with a work so 
great ; a continent to conquer from nature, and a vast Republic to 
extend over its wide domain. 

The westward migration of the human race pressing ever from 
the east, and the discovery of America impelled the ancestors of 
the American people to i)itch their tents upon the Atlantic shore 
of the continent. Upon that shore fixed habitations were estab- 
lished and the continental mission of the American people inaugu- 
rated by a still onward and westward movement across the continent 
to the Pacific ocean. The movement was dii'ected by that law of 
human life wliich urges man on to the civil conquest of the world, 
to carve empires out of the M'ilderness and build cities of civilization. 
The American pioneer was followed and succeeded even to the 
Pacific shore by the men of more skillful hands, with more useful 
arts. This movement of the American peoi)le westward across the 
continent has been going on for one hundred years. New states 
have been admitted into the federal famil}^, the chain of empire 
has been sti'jBtKihtMl across the continent from ocean to ocean, and 



— 8 — 

during all these years and amid all the achievements of our govern- 
ment and civilization, the American people have heen l)ouud together 
by commercial and social ties extending from the east to the west. 
From the parental home in the east, from the neiglil>orhood and 
from the state, went forth son and daughter, friends and people, 
westward over the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, to seek new 
homes in the valley of the Mississippi and upon the Pacific slope. 
Every child and every person who went toward the setting sun 
made stronger the ties between the east and the west, and made 
those geographical terms more familiar and attractive to the great 
mass of the people, than the north and the south. 

Kindred ties — art, industry, commerce, education and religion 
were all woven together to make strong the unity of the people 
along the pathway running from the east to the west. This, in the 
very nature of things, was a condition incident to the pioneering 
century of the Republic. 

Meanwhile, when the arts and civil interests were uniting the 
people in stronger bonds, slavery grew to be a disturbing and 
sectional element in our civilization, and with its growth the terms 
north and south became odious to nuiny. The two sections of 
country, one lying upon the lakes, and the other upon the Gulf of 
Mexico, in a measure became antagonized to each other. Political 
fanaticism, for and against slavery, tended to engender a spirit of 
crimination between the people living north and south of Mason 
and Dixon's line — a spirit hostile to the commercial and social in- 
terest of the whole people. 

The national struggle which grew out of slavery ended witli slavery, 
and in spite of the clamor of politicians and the whi})pers-in of de- 
caying party organizations, the Republic is now on the highway tO' 
primacy among the nations of the earth. 

The great pioneer movement of the world's people has always been 
from east to west. This movement lies at the bottom of human govern- 
ment. It prepares the way for the higher growth of wealth and civil- 
ization which come from the activity of the people north and south. 

The pioneer movement of the American people having been sub- 
stantially accomplished by the extension of the frontier lines of 
civilization to the Pacific Ocean and the building of seats of jfixed 
hal)itation and cities of commerce, the people are now unconsciously 
preparing for the second and more mature movement in the ful- 
iiUment, on this continent, of the mission of the Anglo-Saxon race. 



— 9 — 

This iiOAV inoveincnt of the American peoph' will be at rinht anules 
to the axi.s of the l)(;lt of eiii[)ii'e, or to the iiortli and Die south U[)()n 
the North Americjin continent and the western honiispherc. The 
first movement is impelled by the migrator}^ instinct of the race, 
and its funchimental condition is sameness among the people living 
upon the same latitudes and under the same climates. The second 
movement is a struggle for wealth and civilization. It compels man 
to combat the climates and convert to one general pur|)osc of indi- 
vidual happiness and ])ublic good tiie products of nature and man 
under all the climates. This, second movement develops genius and 
creates art. It is cosmopolitan in its character and unitar}' in its 
results . 

It required one hundred years for the American people to nuike 
the first movement over this continent, to contest with wild 1)casts 
and red men the right to possess the land they now inhal)it and 
plant empire upon its wide domain. It will not require so long a 
time for this people to comprehend their mission and accomplish 
the second movement. It requires a longer time foi" the child to 
arrive at the age of manly usefulness than it does for it to grow 
from manly usefulness to mature usefulness. So too with a nation, 
the growth of which from colonial and pioneer life is always slow 
and difficult. 

At this point it might be well for me to call youi- attention to what 
is termed a scientific fact, connected with the historic movement of 
the human race upon the globe, and I ask your pardon for presuming 
to attacK, or it might be said explain, and give a new interpretation 
to what is called a cardinal doctrine of Avorld-notcd men. 1 refer to 
the doctrine of the "Belt of Empire." 

It is a familiar fact to those of ordinary reading that the great 
mass of the world's people have lived, and do now live north of the 
equator and in the North Tempei'ate Zone. The reason of this must 
be obvious to every reflecting mind. First, the land formations of 
the glol)e are older in the region of the Arctic Zone north of the 
equator than sonth of it ; th(M"efore, sooner fitted for the abode of 
man. Second, north of the equator the land formations of the globe 
widen and the waters contract, thus adapting climates to the better 
use of man. 

In addition to these facts it is also true that the strongest l)ranch 
of the human race, the White Aryan race, started long ago "from 
the primitive paradise in the neighborhood of the primeval cities of 



— 10 — 

."Sogd and Balkli, in High Asia," and has moved westward over the 
globe within a belt of country defined to be governed by equal 
temperature ; that along this belt have grown up nearly all the great 
men and oreat cities and oreat nations of the earth. This belt of 
equal temperature was first defined by Humboldt, who called the 
attention of scientific men to it. It is now called the belt of empire, 
and is understood to be a revelation of a great physical truth. 

Since Humboldt called the attention of scientific men to this belt 
of equal temperature, John William Draper, LL. D., has founded 
much of his discussions upon its correctness ; so also have Gov. 
'Gilpin, Col. K. G. Ingersoll and others. Col. Ingersoll has gone 
so far as to say that no man can be great, nor can there be any great 
works of man, save where snow and ice are to be combated. And 
all writers who believe in the discovery of this great physical truth, 
have set their seal of condemnation on southern countries and 
southern jjeople. 

Now with all due regard to Humboldt and his great experience and 
his learned followers, 1 undertake to say that the so-called belt of 
■empire or zone of equal temperature is not founded upon a funda- 
mental law governing human life upon this globe. It is founded 
upon an incident and not on an all-powerful governing law. At best 
the belt of ecjual temperature is defined by the pioneer movement of 
mankind around the globe, and the intellectual achievements of the 
race along the highway of the pioneers are alone incidental to the 
migrator}^ movement along the so called path of empire, and to con- 
tend for the finality and inflexibility of such a law governing mankind 
is to contend against God. All the evidence of the world's pre- 
historic civilization, as Avell as modern experience, go to disprove the 
existence of such a governing law. In the Orient the evidences of 
the liighest civilization and intellectual activity are found beyond the 
axis of this belt of equal temperature. So, too, are the evidences 
furnislunl in Yucatan and Peru. 

The l)irth of Hannibal and the victories of Cortez, the Inrth of 
Napoleon and Alexander Hamilton, and many other illustrious men 
in the annals of history, contradict the interpretation of the law said 
to have been discovered b}^ Hum])()ldt. 

In more recent discussions on the movement of commerce upon, 
and as affected l)y the new order growing up on the Western Hem- 
isphere, men tell us that commerce moves upon certain gTcat lines 
of traflic, and in support of their undefined theories they refer to 



— 11 — 

the camel, whoso instinct ivo movcniont determines the operation of 
a great uoverning hiw. I deny tlie movement of the camel as afford- 
ing any evidence to establish a fixed law of human action. The 
camel was always a frontier, a pioneer animal ; besides, he will soon 
pass aAvay from the earlh, and then who can tell anything about a 
law that has no expounder. 

It therefore remains for some modern Humboldt to reveal lo the 
workl another law, if law it must be called, a rule of action defined 
by the movement of civilization on this globe; a higher law than 
controls the pioneer movement of mankind ; a hiAV not directed along 
a latitudinal belt of th(! globe, where instinct alone travels, but a 
law defined by the contest of mind, of consciousness, with the zones 
and climates of the earth. This new law properly defined will ex- 
plain man's mightiest achievements on the globe, and vindicate God 
for making him master upon the earth. 

In vindication of such a law, yet undefined, I hold that wherever 
grass grows in abundance on the face of the globe, and wherever 
mighty armies can march and win victories, there will civilization 
grow and man attain to the highest degree of power, intellectual 
iidv^anceinent and refinement. 

The adhesion to the old pioneer, so-called, belt of empire dis- 
'courages the human race from its vet mightiest achievement of 
commercial and civil progress over the zones and climates of the 
"Western Hemisphere. Here, between Cape Horn and Behring 
Straits, will be the greatest future, the mightiest destiny, and soon 
^\\\\ begin to move a great wave of Saxon blood southward over this 
hemisphere, destined to imfold a new and mightier commerce, a 
more shining civilization, a greater manhood than Avas ever known 
-before to the world. 

But the camel moved north and south as well as east and west. 
He Avas the ship of the desert, and his master was a ])arbarian Avho 
huo-oed the shores of the Orient in his westward movement upon 
the globe and coveted the elements of nature as his fortress and his 
guide. I therefore unhesitatingly assert that the facts u^jon which 
the so-called " belt of empire'* is founded are not conclusive ; they 
are all subject to modification b}^ our constantly growing civilization. 

In the discussion of this subject I desire it to be understood that my 
purpos(^ is more especially to apply whatever lesson it aflortls to the 
interests and welfare of the people of the Mississippi Valley, in 
whose guardian cai-e the i)evpetuity of the America.n Kepublic is 



— 12 — 

henceforth to ])e intrusted. The topographical and geological con- 
struction of the North American continent atfords nnmistakeable 
evidence of the ditferent uses and the manner of appWing them, for 
which Providence designed each of these physical sections of the 
continent. It is therefore my purpose to indicate to the people of 
the Mississippi Valley the supreme importance of wisely conforming 
to the purposes of Providence, in the adaptability of national means 
to the best ends of human want and human advancement. In the 
language of De Tocqueville "the Valley of the Mississippi is the most 
magniticent dwelling place prepared by God for man's abode." 

And it is the annunciation of this truth that I propose to demon- 
strate, as well as to show that the only absolute guarantee for the 
perpetuity of the American Republic is in the political unity of the 
people of the States of the Valley of the Mississippi. 

That the highest industrial, commercial, social and political rela- 
tions of the people of this great Valley will in the future exist 
between the North and the South there can be no manner of doubt. 
Both nature and civilization will demand that the future millions of 
American people prosecute the great Ijattle of life — the great contest 
for wealth, power and knowledge between zones and climates, the 
extremes of which produce conflicts that increase the necessities of 
man and stimulate him to greater endeavors to conquer the obstacles 
of nature found in his pathway. And it is the inevitable decree of 
nature that this battle of life on this continent be waged in the Valley 
of the Mississippi. 

Taking our national domain as a whole, we have, exclusive of 
Alaska, 3,495,453 square miles. Of this number more than one-half,, 
or 2,445,000 square miles, belong to the Valley of the Mississippi. 
And as this great Valley is indissohil)^ bound together l)y natural 
ties, wiiich are in the highest degree essential to human })rosperity 
and human power, it must be inferred that it was destined by superior 
wisdom to l)e the heritage and home of one people, speaking one 
language, obeying one law, and aspiring to one destiny. There is no 
other conclusion to wliich the hitelligent mind can arrive. Let us 
consider it for one moment. 

Here we liave a Valley, the largest and richest in natural resources- 
of any single body of land on the glolie. It extends from the semi- 
arctic regions of the continent to the equatorial climate of our- 
Hemisphere. In l)readth it occupies the vast domain between the 
Alleghanies and Kocky Mountains. Its climate is that under whiclii 



— 13 — 

•all great nations of the world have advanced to power ; that which 
all histor}^ proves to l)e calculated to develop the highest physical 
and intellectual activitv^ . 

Viewed in the light of its population, this great Vallc}' has a 
natural basis, a productive power sufficient to support a mightier 
people, more populous, and greater in the arts of peace that any 
other portion of the glol)e. Its extent of river navigation exceeds 
that of any other Valley known to the continents, and its railway 
system has no equal. Its coal tields and corn tields expand far 
beyond the measure of those belonging to any other domain, while 
its materials for building purposes and its food producing capacity 
are equaled nowhere else. Thus endow^ed b}^ nature Avith prodigal 
resources, it must become the centre of human power on the globe, 
the chosen place where the westward movement of population will 
l)e arrested and find a lodgment. 

The center of the world's civilization in its westward movement 
can never pass this Valley, for the narrow belts of land favored in 
soil and climate, along the Pacific coast, can never support a 
population as numerous as w^ill soon inhabit the basin between the 
Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. Beyond the Pacific ocean, Ave 
come back to the cradle of the earliest civilization, and to lands 
already over-crowded with population. The Southern Hemisphere, 
so largely submerged, offers no sufficient resting-place for a great 
nation, except in regions too close to the tropics to aflbrd opportunity 
for the highest development of power and civilization. The fairest 
and most fertile tracts of Europe and Asia are separated from each 
other by physical obstacles, as well as by differences in the speech 
and race of their inhabitants, so that no homogeneous, compact 
people, thoroughly united in interests and aims, can be expected to 
arise in those regions, having a population of more than fifty millions ; 
l)ut the population of the IMississippi Valley, which increased fifty-one 
and a half per cent, from 1850 to 18G0, and in spite of the losses of 
war, increased almost thirty per cent, from 18(50 to 1870, if it should 
advance at the former rate Avould be over one hundred millions 
within forty years from tliis date ; and if it should gain only as fast 
as it did during the last decade of war, would be over one Inmdred 
millions in little more than sixty years from this date. In the 
population of this Valley many races are represented, but all are 
fused and blended into one compact nation. A system of interior 
lines of Avater communication, such as exists nowhere else on the 



— U — 

earth, with an iinequaled auxiliary railway system, l)ind together in 
daily intercourse and common interests the whole of this growing 
population. The predominant blood in its population is that mas- 
terful Anglo-Saxon, which has made Germany the most powerful of 
European nations, and England the Queen of commerce and the 
mistress of the seas. 

With such a population, so bound together by a common interest,, 
and so favored by natural resources and climate, this great Valley 
must continue to attract to itself the choicest population of other 
lands. Europe already overflows, and its most intelligent, indus- 
trious and enterprising emigrants seeking new homes are drawn by 
the cheapness and fertility of the soil and ample resources of the 
Mississippi Valley. Nor can this be otherwise until its density of 
population is as great as that of Euroj^ean countries. The Ger- 
man Empire has a population of 164 to the square mile. The 
Mississippi Valley, not including its Territories, have an area of 
1,100,000 square miles, and must therefore have a population of one 
hundred and eighty millions before it becomes as densely occupied 
as Germany is now. 

Until this Valley becomes more populous than any other country 
on earth, except China, it must continue to receive the constant 
overflow from Europe, Moreover, the Atlantic states already pour 
a steady flood of migration over the mountains, Avithout themselves 
ceasing to increase in population. As they become more densely 
settled, this westward flood will become greater every year. 

There is another reason for 1)elieving that its increase in popu- 
lation will not be arrested until the Mississippi Valle}^ has become 
more densely populated than any country in Europe. It is des- 
tined to be the home of peace, the safest and surest refuge of 
industry. On the eastward the Atlantic states form the first and a 
powerful barrier against foreign invasion ; while the Alleghau}' moun- 
tains present a line of defense impregnable against any enemy 
approaching from the east. On the westward the Pacific states 
would resist an invader, and the Sierras and deserts arrest his 
march. On the north, regions inipassal)le in summer by reason of 
water, and in winter by reason of snows, shut in the valley from 
approach, while from the Gulf coast, as experience during the war 
of 1812 and in the recent civil war abundantly proved, there is 
no pathway northward which could not easily be held against any 
invading force. Thus defended on all sides, with ample water facil- 



— 15 — 

ities reaching throughout the whole interior tor the transport ation» 
of forces toward any threatened point, the })copk' of the valky 
are more secure from invasion than those of any nation on earth. 
The time may come Avhcn this advantage will l)e an imi)()rtant one. 
On the other hand, no country in Europe is thus secure. Hostile 
armies have more than once tram[)led the grain of the richest 
fields of Germany, Italy, Austria and France, and even the snows 
of Russia have not always proved a shield of protection. Between 
the hostile races and irreconcileable creeds of Europe there can be 
no enduring peace, and the costly militar}' estal)lishment of 
ever}' nation must there burden its industry, and the constant 
dread of war repress enterprise, even in times of peace. For 
this reason, even more than because of density of population, 
there is certain to be a constant migration from lands Avhere- 
industry must be always burdened and never secure, to the 
home of perpetual peace in that great valley which no invader can 
ever penetrate. 

Thus favored by circumstances -within and without, it must be 
obvicuis that the Mississippi Valley will continue to advance in 
population until its inhabitants number at least one hundred mil- 
lions ; nor can that time be more than half a century distant. 
Bound together hy common interests, and a common share in that 
great S3^stem of rivers, the outlet of which it can never sutfer to be un- 
der a foreign control, the Mississippi Valley will have both the inter- 
est to forbid and the power to prevent any separation of other portions 
of the Republic Far outnumbering any other section in po[)ulation, 
and having, by its central position, the advantage over all others^ 
even if combined, it will neither sutler its protecting fortifications 
on the eastern sea-coast, nor on the Pacific, to be separated from 
its control. Apart from its power of numerical superiority, the 
Mississippi Valley is the only section of the country which can 
stand alone ; the Atlantic states can never secede for want of food, 
nor the Pacific states for want of the metals. Powerful enough 
in numbers to make the laws of the Republic, the peo[)le of the 
valley will also be powerful enough to enforce thcni. To-day the 
inhabitants of the United States are forty millions ; and those 
of the Mississippi Valley twenty millions ; in 1880 the people of the 
United States will be fifty millions, and the people of the Valley at 
least twenty-seven, and from that time forward their share of power 
will increase proportionally with every decade. 



— 16 — 

Must we not therefore conclude, in view of its natural capa- 
bilities and the possibilities of its people, that the Valley of the 
Mississippi is destined, at no distant day, to be the greatest theatre 
of human activity on the globe ? Is it not evident beyond all ques- 
tion of a doubt that between the two great mountain ranges of the 
continent and from our northern boundarj^ to the Gulf of Mexico, 
will soon reside a vast population, more powerful in war and more 
prosperous in peace, than can be found anywhere else on the earth? 
, Having considered the physical aspect of this great valley, and its 
capacit}^ for population, as the basis of the future growth and pros- 
perity of its people, let us pass to its commercial interests. 

Viewed in its commercial aspect, the trade of the people of the 
Mississippi Valley must be conducted north and south, between zones 
and climates. The great wealth which the surplus products of con- 
tiguous countries create, grows out of traffic between zones and 
climates ; — the exchange of difterent products which one people make 
with another. Whoever looks to the under-lying principles that in- 
stinctively control the American people, in their eflbrts for gain and 
happiness, must know that, in the maturity of their public life, they 
cannot continue to adhere to the east and west movement upon the 
continent. No real wealth can grow out of such a movement. 
People who have the same products cannot create markets for each 
other, and more especially is this true with those who inhabit the 
same land, the same continent. People occupying difl'erent lands, 
having different climates, and residing upon different continents, 
can alone create markets for each other. If these statements be true 
it requires no great foresight, no great reasoning, to foresee and 
demonstrate the future interest not only of that portion of the 
American people residing in the Valley of the Mississippi, but 
of those also who reside on each of the ocean slopes. Not only do 
our people, living north and south in the Valley of the Mississippi, 
have home markets, the importance of which arec onstantly increas- 
ing Avith the growth of the country and the abundant supplies of the 
diverse products of different climates and soils, but be^^ond our own 
land and south. of us are situated lands having different soils, climates 
and productions from our own. 

It was this demand of commerce, this want in the advanced bod}^ 
of the great stream of the human race in its westward movement 
from the orient, that compelled the Phoenicians more than 600 years 
before the beo-inning of this era to mo^'c at right an^-les from the 



— 17 — 

zodiac of empire and combat different climates, for the pnrpose of 
securing for tliemselve.s a new and richer trade from the semi-tropical 
regions of Egypt. It was this same law, the same desire for the 
rich products of those lands that made the Jews seek the East India 
trade in the days of Solomon, and Jerusalem grew under the influence 
of this new trade to be the rival of Nineveh and Bal)ylon. It was 
this same demand for the wealth of diverse climates that stimulated 
Alexander the Great to open a new commercial path to the East 
Indies that made Alexandria and Egypt the seats of wealth, power, 
learning and the arts and sciences. The Alexandrian route to the 
Indies continued to be the channel of trade for a period of 800 years ; 
but with a westward movement of the human race new routes were 
successively opened, until with us in America a new Indies and a 
new continent has been discovered, and for our people new paths 
of commerce are destined to be opened, leading to richer fields 
of trade than those which we now possess. 

The people of those lands can supph' for the inhabitants of this 
valley markets of incalculable value ; markets destined to increase 
in importance until they become more valuable to the people of 
North America than all the markets of Europe and Asia. Infinite 
Avisdom made this western hemisphere to subserve a purpose peculiar 
to itself. No husband and wife were ever more truly mated in love, 
iind more truly adapted to the happiness of each other than ara 
the continents of the western hemisphere ; and their children, the 
islands of the Gulf and the seas, are protected by the warm 
parental embrace of the two parents. North America is masculine 
by nature in its relation to South America ; South America is 
feminine. North America is positive, its people of the Anglo- 
Saxon blood possess the spirit of aggression, of adventure and 
eonquest ; South America is negative, its people, offspring of the 
Latin races, are subjective and receptive. North America being 
of the male nature, its people will rule the destiny of the hemi- 
sphere. Linked together by nature as these continents are, their 
peoples must be united by commercial relations, reciprocal in their 
character and profitable in their results. Seeing these things to be 
true we must conclude that the future growth in commerce and 
arts, of the people of the continents of the western hemisphere, 
will depend upon the co-operative relations of the one with the 
other. The people of this valley will not look in the future to 
the markets of Europe and Asia for profits upon the surplus pro- 



— 18 — 

ducts of their farmers and mechanics. They will only look to 
those Oriental lands for products that minister to the comfort., 
enjoyment and happiness of the people of this valley. 

Resources infinitely surpassing those of Europe, and climates 
unsurpassed by those of Asia and Africa, are found upon the western 
hemisphere. And to tell us that these superior resources, and these 
favored climates, belonging to our people and at the very gates of 
the nation, when wisely used, will not create markets of export 
and import far superior in profit and character to those of the older 
lands, is to challenge alike our credulity and our faith in Americau 
enterprise. 

If it be true that transportation is the basis of all jirogress 
in civilization, and that seas, oceans and navigable rivers afibrd the 
cheapest transportation known to commerce, then we have only to 
look to the physical formation of the two continents of the western 
hemisphere to determine the relation of their commercial interests, . 
as well as of their social and political societies. 

People residing north and south of the equator are bound together 
by kindred land and waters. In every way do the land and waters 
of the two continents of the western hemisphere seem to relate 
to each other in a manner calculated to subserve the highest com- 
mercial and social interests of the people destined to reside upon 
the wide domain of each. The mighty rivers of the two lands, 
runnino- thi"ougli the richest regions of country on the earth, go 
towards each other, and mingle Avith the common water free to all 
the commerce of the world, and this people have only to com- 
prehend the natural situation, their free inheritance, and conform 
to the requirements of nature in the prosecution of the higher and 
more essential duties of public life on this continent to attain the 
hiohest end of human existence. The duty is before the people 
of this oeneration ; it only remains to be performed. Already the 
o-reat cities of the valley have made rapid strides in the north and 
south movement, as seen in the construction of raihvaj^s running 
toward the Gulf. 

The commercial experience also of each succeeding year adds 
strength to the conviction that the surplus products of this valley 
must follow the flow of the waters to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
from thence to the markets of the world. In fact, it is a truth 
that the people of this valley have always had a more permanent 
home market, as well as a continental trade, north and south, than 



— 19 — 

they have hud east and west . There is one continued market north 
and south from the Gulf to the Lakes, from Mobile, New Orleans 
and Galveston to Omaha, St. Paul and Chicago, while from Denver, 
Omaha and Chicago there exists no market east and west to the 
ports of the Atlantic. It is true that superior capital and better 
facilities for shipping have compelled western i)roduce to the Atlantic 
sea-board, and from thence to the markets of other lands ; but it 
must be evident to every retlectinii- man that, if freisrhts can be 
carried more cheaply from au}^ part of this valley to the Gulf of 
Mexico, than by rail to the Atlantic sea-1)oard, and more cheaply from 
the Gulf ports to foreign markets than from the ports of the Atlantic, 
they will go to the Gulf instead of the Atlantic. This is a proposition 
that no commercial man can gainsay, and it requires no effort to 
prove that corn and wh(?at and other produce can be carried 
more cheaply from Omaha, St. Paul and Chicago to New Orleans, than 
from either of those points to New York. Furthermore, the 
day is not far distant when an eighth of a cent difference in the 
transportation of a bushel of Avlieat or corn from our countr}^ will 
rule the routes of transit and the markets of the world. 

Under the present east and west movement Chicago and St. Louis are 
scarcely more than great custom houses to which western produce 
pays duty on its Avav^ to the Atlantic- ports. Is it not easy to see in 
these statements a great truth underlying which will revolutionize, 
not only the commerce of this Valley, but the trade of the continent. 
Already our whole continental trade is rapidly changing, and with the 
change millions of money will be saved annually to the toilers of the 
Valley. 

I look beyond to-day, and I see in the mysterious, though rapidly 
ai:)proa(hing future, new agencies put into use in the transpoi-tation 
of the products of this Valley. I see improved modes of business, 
wiser and better means for commercial use. And I also see one 
vast system of continental and inter-continental trade ijrowinjr 
into supremacy. I see the wisdom and experience of enlightened 
merchants slowly but surely supplanting the present system of the 
eastward and westward movement of commerce by a northward and 
southward drift, tind thus connecting by means of river and sea the 
dift'erent zones and climates, and exchanging their productions, aud 
as a consequence 

Southward the tides of commerce run, 
"From lauds of snow to huids of sun."' 



— 20 — 

I see art and science, wealth and Uiav, commerce and manufactures, 
all uniting with the wisdom of. man, to make this continent and the 
hemisphere subserve the purposes of the Divine by enabling the 
future millions of this hemisphere to reap the full rewards of honest 
toil. 

It is only by conforming to this north and south movement that 
the j)eoi3le of this valley can achieve the highest commercial and 
social advancement and secure the advantages afforded by diver- 
sity of climates. Wealth and refinement will hasten the more 
rapid exchange of products of the different climates north and south, 
and increase the comfort and happiness of those living in the different 
latitudes. Cars will no doubt soon be constructed to take hsh and 
other northern products from the upper lakes and other regions 
adjacent to the southward, to be distributed over the Valley in mid- 
summer, and others will be constructed for the purpose of taking 
tropical fruits from the Gulf ports and distributing them northward 
over the Valley in midwinter. 

This new movement of trade ^vill draw after it a personal commerce 
in the mio-rations of the wealthier citizens of each diverse region to 
the other, to the South in winter, to the North in summer, which 
will exert a powerful social influence in cementing the units of the 
country b}^ bonds of personal friendship as well as by those of busi- 
ness interest. 

But let me stop in the midst of this presentation of the new 
commercial and industrial lite now growing up on the Western 
Hemisphere, and consider for one moment the relations between 
the city of my home and your great commonwealth ; what they are 
and what they are to be. If what has been previously said in 
reference to the commercial importance of the North and South 
movement of commerce, wealth and civilization, indicates correctly 
the activities of our people in the future, then St. Louis must 
forever continue to be a great vital organ in our continental life, 
and Texas must rise in the Southern Zone to be the political Arcturus 
in our great constellation of States. Already the conviction is grow- 
ing in the public mind that St. Louis, though born the child of 
another nation, is destined to become, and that at no distant date, 
our continental metropolis and the capital of the world. 

She now counts among her commercial houses tAvelve establish- 
ments, the largest of the kind on the globe. These I name as 
follows: Samuel Cupples & Co., manufticturers and dealers in 



— 21 — 

woodenware ; the Simmons Hardware Company — tlie annual sales 
of this house amount to $2, 000, 000 : the St. Louis Stamping Com- 
pany, manuafcturers and dealers in granite and liouse furnishing 
ware ; the Excelsior Manufacturing Company, mainifacturers of 
stoves and dealers in tinners' supplies ; the Collier White Lead 
and Oil Works ; the Semple & Birge Manufacturing Company, 
manufacturers of agricultural machinery, hand farming tools and 
hardware specialties; Gregory, Stagg & Co., commissioners, im- 
porters, distillers and wholesale dealers in whiskies ; F. MansHchl 
& Co., manufacturers of matches; L. M. Rumsey & Co., manu- 
facturers and jol)bers of pumps, agricultural implements, lead-pipe, 
sheet lead, gas-pipe fittings, railway supplies, plumbers' and steam 
fitters' brass goods, belting, hose, packing, &c. ; the St. Louis 
Cotton Compress Company — tlic l^uildings of this company oc- 
cupy a' greater area of land than any other com})aiiy in the world; 
they have eighteen acres of flooring ; and the business done by 
this company is greater than by any other comjDany in the world, 
the present year they handled 400,000 bales of cotton ; the Medical 
Establishment of Dr. J. H. McLean, for the manufactory of si)ecial 
medicines ; the Vulcan Iron Works, for the manufacture of steel rails. 
In other lines of trade St. Louis has a number of establishments, 
the largest of their kind in the A^alloy of the Mississippi. These 
establishments I name: Hamilton, Brown & Co., manufacturers and 
jobbers in l)oots and shoes — this house is the largest in the 
Mississippi Valley, and docs an annual business of $300,000 in 
excess of any other house in St. Louis ; Brookmire & Ranken, 
wholesale grocers ; the Richardson tt Co., wholesale drug house ; the 
Yaeger Milling Company, manufacturers of flour— the largest in the 
United States — the mill consumes annually 1,750,000 bushels of wheat, 
out of which are made 350,000 barrels of flour ; the Belcher Sugar 
Refining Co., manufacturers of refined sugars and syrups — this estab- 
lishment docs a business of $0,500,000 yearly, it requires the aid of four 
hundred men to carrj' on the business. During the present year this 
establishment has used over 22,000 hogsheads of Louisiana sugar, the 
remainder of the sugars used are imported direct from Cuba. The 
present year the United States Government has been paid over 
$1,000,000 for import duties on sugar for this establishment: it 
turns out all grades of refined sugar, and equal in (juality to the best 
sugars in the country : the com})any melt daily 3.")0,0()(i pounds raw 
sugar, and turn out annuallv over 200,(><iO l)arrels of rctincd sugar; 



— 22 — 

Lemp's Western Brewery is the largest and finest establishment of the 
kind in the Valley of the Mississippi, the draft and bottled beer made 
by this l)rewery finds a ready market all over this country, and in the 
West Indies, Central and South America ; Whitman Agricultural Com- 
pany, manufacturers of horsepowers, threshing machines, corn shellers 
(all sizes), cider mills, feed cutters, seed sowers, road scrapers, &c, ; 
the L. Bauman & Co., wholesale jewelry house. In reference to 
banking, the Boatmen's Saving Bank of St. Louis, is the largest 
in the Mississippi Valley, exclusive of two l:>ranch Canadian banks 
in Chicago— its capital stock is $2,000,000 and its surplus $300,000 
and its deposits over $3,000,000; R. Sellew & Co., dealers in 
metals, tin plate, sheet iron, copper and other supplies; Dozier, 
Weyl & Co., bakery and cracker manufactory; the American Wine 
Co., manufacturers of Cook's imperial; Kingsland, Ferguson & Co., 
manufacturers of threshing machines, cotton gins and presses : 
G. & C. Todd & Co., French burr mill-stone factory: Smith, 
Beggs & Co., machine works; Branch, Crookes & Co., saw works; 
Deere, Mansur & Co., manufacturers and dealers in plows ; Nicholas 
Schaefi*er, manufacturer of soaps, candles, lard oil, refined lard and 
glycerine ; the Catlin Tobacco Company, manufacturers of all kinds 
of fine-cut and chewing and smoking tobaccos ; Nave, Goddard 
& Co. are the most extensive dealers in general groceries ; Meyer, 
Bannerman & Co., dealers in saddlery and saddler}"^ hardware; H. & 
L. Chase, importers and mainifacturers, and dealers in bags and 
bagging ; the Lafiin & Rand Powder Company, a branch of the 
largest powder house in the world ; and John A. Scholten is the 
leading photographer in the Valley of the Mississippi. 

St. Louis has also the finest building erected to commerce in the 
world, and can boast of the finest stock-yards in America. 

In education St. Louis has the best organized system of culture 
in America and in the world. The newspapers of St. Louis will also 
compare more than favorably with tliosc of other cities in the countr}'. 
The Times and Bejnihlican are conducted with ability and good 
judgment, while the Globe-Democrat, under the business management 
of its experienced proprietors, and the well directed editorial man- 
agement of Mr. J. B. McCullagh, demonstrates more enterprise 
and success than are usual to American journalism. The Evening 
Post and other journals are also worthy of note. 

In addition to these St. Louis is central to the greatest systems 
of river and railway- transportation on the Ji'lobe ; she is the o-reatest 



— 23 — 

ftour inaimfacturing citv in the Avorkl ; she (loos the hirue.st imilo 
trade in the country ; has the finest britlg-e and fair grounds in the 
world, and God long ago decreed her destiny wlicn He laid the foun- 
dations of this continent and furrowed the channels of its rivers and 
enriched its lands, and fitted everything for the abode of man. 
Texas, too, was horn the ])olitical child of another nation, bnt yielding 
to the same high law of nature that has fixed our continental destiny, 
and the all-powerful rule of that constitution that Avas ordained by 
*' We, the People of the United States," she assumed her place 
in the federal faniih' and another star was added to the flag of the 
Union. 

AVith a superficial area of 274,366 square miles, Texas is the largest 
of the States. She is capable, under good government, of subsisting 
in plenty and comfort more than four times the population of the 
Roman Empire under Augustus, and her people, skilled in the arts 
and peaceful pursuits of life, can, in more mature years, success- 
fully resist, if necessary, an invader like Charlemagne or Napoleon. 
In her childhood she demonstrated her power to resist an invader, 
and that power with all its halloAved and time-honored associations 
will be handed down intact, and it might be said iri'epressible to all 
succeeding generations. But while this great commonwealth is rich 
in reminiscences of the past, and can boast of an untarnished 
escutcheon, it has been l)ouutifully endowed by nature Avilli all the 
inherent elements of wealth and matei-ial prospcrit}' for all classes. 
The three absolute essentials to civilized life — food, clothing and 
shelter — can be produced more cheaply and in greater abundance 
by your people than elsewhere under the flag of the Union. 

Let me illustrate : At present your lands are cheaper than else- 
where upon the Gulf, or in the older States : in productive power 
they will compare with other lands in producing material for food, 
clothino" and shelter. Your climate does not rerpiire the same abun- 
dance of food Avhich is demanded by the inhabitants of colder regions. 
Your people can clothe themselves more cheaply, and shelter them- 
selves at less expense, than those who Ix'long to hardier regions. 
These facts, taken together, make living and earning a living less 
expensive in Texas than any other State in the Union, and therefore 
Texas affords greater advantages to actual settlers, whose means are 
limited, than any other State. Again the same amount of labor 
will produce more wealth in your State than in any other part of 
the country. But this inducement is vastly increased by the varied 



— 24 — 

and ever-growing statistics, which each succeeding year adds ta 
swell the evidences of your prosperity and the constantly increasing- 
tendency of capital and population, of speculation and enterprise 
to your midst, all evidences of inherent and future power, wealth 
and greatness. 

But wide-spread as are the local advantages of this great common- 
wealth, and however vitalized by your constantly growing railway 
system, your trade and industry, there is still another sense in which 
you must be greater. 

Your State occupies a middle ground. It lies upon the Gulf and 
extends to the north ; upon one side are mountains, upon the other 
plain. Your water transit combines with your railway S3^stem and 
unites you with a continent, a hemisphere, and the world. Your, 
climates extend to the north and south, uniting upon one side the 
heavier industries of the North with the milder pursuits of the Soutb 
upon the other side. You hold the middle ground ; over your high- 
ways and through your gates must the great North pass, to that new 
South which still lies beyond the rule of our Constitution, but which 
will soon be absorbed by the mission of our Saxon people southward,, 
to the commercial conquest of equatorial America. 

Your people have vast possibilities before them. Upon your south 
lies the Mediteranean of the new world, destined to outstrip in com- 
mercial importance the Mediteranean of the old world ; to your 
east there is no Tiber, but there is a continental river far transcending 
the Roman river. You have your commercial shores, and your 
Venice now gTows into commercial greatness and social grandeur. 
It behooves your people, and those charged with making and admin- 
istering your laws and giving aid to national legislation, to promote- 
zealously the immediate establishment of lines of steamers to run 
from your harbors and from all the important Gulf harbors to all 
the leading markets of the western hemisphere, and especially tO' 
those south of you and to those of Europe. These commercial 
facilities you need, and these you must have. 

In the heavens you can almost see the Southern Cross ; the 
Polar Star is still your guide, and the Lone Star your emblem. 
Your skies reach over the lands of the Aztecs and Incas, and to- 
the north over the lands of Hiawatha and Black Hawk. 

Your great State is connected and united Avith the great city of 
futurity by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. This 
road is TidO miles in k-nath, connectins: at Texarkana with vour 



— 'Id — 

already great system of railways. This mighty railway is an iron 
road to the sea. It lies in that longitudinal direction, to which the 
commerce of the future in this great Valley must eventually con- 
form. It is a connecting link between the different zones and 
climates of the Avestern hemisphere. 

On the west side of the Mississippi, the main branch of this 
road and its connections oi)en to St. Louis the trade of four Statesr 
— Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas — from which, before its 
completion, she only had a frontier portion. Now a vast country is 
opened to a new commerce. The region of comitry thus opened 
has the Avealth and territory of an empire in itself. Nature has lieen 
prodigal in givmg to the region of country along the line of this road, 
from St. Louis to Galveston and the Rio Grande, incomparable 
resources of natural wealth, and the completion of a great trunk line 
of railway from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico has given to our 
city a new commerce, the value of which cannot well be estimated. 

It has given to our city a new market by introducing cotton, the 
great staple of the South, as a commodity of traffic for our mer- 
chants. Already this trade amounts to $20,000,000 annually, and^ 
with a constantlj^ increasing tendency, must, by the influence of an 
inviting polic}', in a few years double this amount. The commerce 
of this road now amounts to $100,000,000, tifty millions of which 
is directly with St. Louis. Enormous as these figures are they 
only represent a trade in its earliest years, l)ut a trade that now 
truly indicates the unlimited value and importance of the north and 
south movement on this hemisphere. Add to this trade the many 
elements of industry and commerce which make supph' and de- 
mand to our merchants and which this road, with its connections,, 
has brought into requisition, and no man can compute its future 
value to all the countries it connects in trade and the inter-com- 
munion of the difterent people. 

The future importance of this great iron road to your State and 
the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley luus recently received new 
and areater value bv the successful settlement of its financial affairs. 
Hereafter no difficulty will lie in the way of its extension, in con- 
nection with your existing systems of roads, to the City of Mexico. 
The name and character of ]Mr. Allen, the presideut of this road, are 
already familiar to your people : and I am confident that with you, 
as with us, his character and ability inspire confidence in all his 
efforts. I take a justifiable pride in saying to the people of 



^ 2G — 

this great commonwealth that Mr. Allen is one of the most able 
men in this country. In man}" respects I do not know his equal. 
If I were permitted to speak of him hy comparison I would call him 
the De Witt Clinton of the West. His scholarly attainments, his 
wide a'raspino- reasoning calculating mind, his unquestioned integrit}', 
his soul of humanit}" and philanthropj^ all unite to make him a 
bulwark of indiyiduality and a benefactor among his people. And 
as De Witt Clinton, in the building of the New York and Erie Canal, 
<)[iened the way through which a yast tide of population and com- 
merce moyed from the Atlantic seal)oard to the northwest, along the 
line of the lakes, the upper Mississippi and Missouri, so has Mr. 
Allen far adyanced in opening the way through the southwest and 
on through your countrj^ and soon to the capital of another nation. 
Xo such other line of transportation lies unoccupied on the Western 
Hemisphere, and there is no man more fitted to lead the execution 
ot this great international highway than Mr. Thomas Allen. 

Viewed in all its relations to the present and future trade of the 
country, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway tar 
transcends in importance any other line connected with the St. Louis 
railroad system, for it has only opened a trade that is yet capable of 
indefinite expansion. The lands that were once the home of wild 
beasts and refugees, are now, by the magic influence of this road, 
growing populous, prosperous and powerful. This great iron road 
must, in connection Avith your system of roads, be extended on to 
the city of the Montezumas, to the city of Mexico. By this route 
the people of St. Louis and your people can reach the Pacific at a 
less distance than by au}^ other route ; and we can as well bring 
into commerc ial requisition countries which we now coyet, and 
oyer which our flag will soon float, in the onward mission and conti- 
nental rule of our constitution. Let us look to these ends as 
eflecting higher and broader relations between your great common- 
wealth and the city of my home. 

I haye already said to some of our people that when this great 
iron road is completed to the City of Mexico a World's Fair 
or Exhibition must he held at St. Louis. By the time this great 
highAvay is completed, be it eyer so short, we shall haye in Canada, 
the United States and Mexico, more than half the present population 
of Great Britain, the German Empire and France : and with the 
adjacent islands and countries of equatorial America for our allies, 
we can draw all njen unto the great city of futurit}^ in the central 



— 27 — 

plain of our continent, to take part in, and look upon, the niiiilitiest 
exhibition of intellectual power and uenius ever produced on the 
glol)e. 

In LS70, when the tir.st edition of my work on the " Future Great 
City'" of the world Avas published ])X the St. Louis County Court 
for free distribution, 1 stated my belief that the future railway policy 
of St. Louis must be to build north and south railways : I Avas then 
considered impractical and visionary. But 1 hold now, as then, tiiat 
the surplus products of all the continents, when riulitly disposed 
of, must follow the direction of the floAV of the Avaters of tiu)se conti- 
nents ; time and experience Avill demonstrate this view to be true. 

The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway also atl'ords to your State 
a great outlet into regions of country destined to be populous, and 
poAverful as political connnunities in the federal family. These great 
lines AA^ill be followed by others which this new commercial destiny 
Avill demancL 

I noAA-- ask you in all sincerity, and submit with the (juestion the 
jDlea, A^'hat is our guarantee for all this hopeful destiny, which 1 
have so dimly pointed out. From a political view the North and 
South moAcment of the people of the Mississippi ^'alley is the safest 
and surest guarantee for the peq^etuity of the Amerii-an Union, 
serA'ing as it must to harmonize and unitize the public sentiment 
throughout its vast extent. 

More than half the national domain lies within the Valley, and will 
comprise more than half the States Avhich compose the national 
Union. These States, AA^th a more dense population than all other 
parts of the Union, Avill always hold the balance of poAver in the 
national legislature, and united in their commercial interests by that 
great river system of communication, the ^Mississippi and its tributa- 
ries, Avhieli ramify through all pai'ts and unitize all interests, Avill 
stand as the eternal bond against every scheme of national disin- 
tegration. And vicAved in the light of the political possi1)ilities of the 
people of this A'alley and all the hopes that inhere in national union, 
does there not come upon them an irresistable demand to bind the 
states of this valley together, not only by soils and climates and river 
and an ever growing commerce, but more especially by a politi 'al 
union that no human power can sever? Look if you will tlii-ough all 
the ao-es of the i)ast and learn what value there is in national union, 
in patriotism, and what woe there is in national ruin. As the strong 
man cliuo-s to life so will the patriot cling to his country. The le-^son 



— 28 — 

of history is not taught in vain, and if we of this generation Avould 
in the present wisely care for the future, we must look to the accom- 
plishment of those things that will insure the best results beyond our 
own day. There is no guarantee for the perpetuity of the American 
Eepublic, save in the union of the States of the Mississippi Valley. 
Bound together by commerce, by science, by civilization, by blood, 
by language and law, the people of tliese States can alone insure the 
perpetuity of the union. And must it not be confessed that every 
consideration of interest and safety demand the unalterable union of 
these States in one political system ? 

Mr. Jefferson foresaw the great importance of extending the rule 
of our Constitution over the entire domain of this Valley. When 
the title to the Louisiana territory passed from Spain to France, the 
spirit of our Government was clearly manifested by the letter of Mr. 
Jefferson, of April 18th, 1802, to Mr. Livingston, the minister to- 
Paris. Said Mr. Jefferson : "There is on the globe one single spot, 
the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy ; it is New 
Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory 
must pass to market, and from its fertility it will ere long yield more 
than half of our whole produce, and contain more than half our 
inhabitants. France placing herself in that door assumes the attitude 
of defiance." 

A little more than one year after these words were uttered, Mr, 
Jefferson concluded a treaty, by which the Louisiana territory was 
ceded to the United States. This gave us full -possession of the 
entire domain of the Mississippi Valley, and full control of the 
Mississippi river. Since then new States have been added to the 
Republic along the entire length of the great river and its tributaries, 
and the protecting care of the nation has been extended to them, and 
they have been eagerly Avatchcd and guarded by the American people, 
and the mouth of the river has twice been defended by the arms of 
the nation and the blood of her soldiers. 

Said Governor Yates of Illinois, in his inaugural message to the 
General Assembly of that State, some months before lire was opened 
on Fort Sumter ; 

"It will be admitted that the territory of Louisiana, acquired in 
1803, for the purpose of securing to the people of the United States 
the free navigation of the Mississippi, could never have seceded ; yet 
it is pretended that when that territory has so perfected its mmiicipal 
organization as to l)e admitted into the Union as a State,, with the 



— 2.) — 

powers ;md privileges equal to the other states, she may at i)leasiire 
repudiate the union, and forbid to the other states the free navigation 
which was purchased at the cost of all, not for Louisiana, but for all 
ttbe people of the United States. A claim so presumptuous and 
absurd could never be acquiesced in. The blood of the gallant sons 
of Kentucky and Tennessee was freely shed to defend New Orleaus 
and the Mississippi river from a foreign foe ; and it is memorable that 
the chieftain who rescued that city from sack and siege, was the same 
who, at a later date, by his stern and patriotic rebuke, dispersed the 
ranks of disunionists in the borders of South Carolina. 

" Can it be for a moment supposed that the people of the valley of 
'tie Mississippi will ever consent that the great river shall flow for 
hundreds of miles through a foreign jurisdiction, and they l)e com- 
pelled — \f not to tight their way in the face of the forts frowning upon 
its banks — to su])mit to the imposition and annoj'ance of arbitrary 
taxes and exorbitant duties to be levied upon their commei-ce? I 
believe that before that day shall come, either shore of the ' father of 
waters ' will l)e a continuous sepulchre of the slain, and with all its 
•cities in ruins, and the cultivated fields upon its sloping sides laid 
waste, it shall roll its foaming tide in solitar}^ grandeur, as at the dawn 
•of creation. I know I speak for Illinois, and I believe for the North- 
Avest, when I declare them a unit in the unalterable determination of 
her millions, occup3dng the great basin drained by the Mississippi, to 
permit no portion of that stream to be controlled by a foreign juris- 
diction." — HicJ/ ard i a tes . 

After the late civil war had been in progress nearly three years, and 
i^ew Orleans was occupied by the federal force. Gen. Banks, on being 
placed in the command of the department of the Gulf, issued a pro- 
clamation to the people of the South, dated Dec. 16, 1863, in which 
he re-affirmed the doctrine of Gov. Yates, in the following forcible 
lanouai>e : 

''The valley of the Mississippi is the chosen seat of population, 
product and power on this continent. In a few years 25,000,000 
people, unsurpassed in material resources and capacity for war, will 
swarm the fertile river. Those who assume to set conditions up on 
the exodus to the Gulf count upon a power not given to man. The 
country washed by the waters of the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi 
can never be permanently severed ; if one generation barters away 
its rights, immortal honors will rest upon another that reclaims them. 
Xet it never be said either that the east or west may be separated. 



^30 — 

Thirty days distance from the markets of Europe may satisfy the 
Avants of Louisiana and Arkansas, but it will not answer the de- 
mands of Illinois and Ohio. The valley of the Mississippi will have 
its deltas upon the Atlantic. The jDhysical force of the west will 
debouch upon its shores with a poAver as resistless as the torrents of 
the Giant River. This country cannot be permanently divided ; 
ceaseless war mav drain its treasuries, domestic tyrants or foreign 
foes may grasp the scepter of its power, l)ut its destiny will remain 
unchanged ; it will still be united ; God has ordained it. What 
avails the destruction of the best government ever devised by man 
— the self-adjusting, self-correcting Constitution of the United States." 

It was the expressed aspiration of Pollard, in his "Lost Cause 
Regained," that through the building up and unification of this 
nation, b}^ means of the arts and peaceful pursuits of the American 
people, a new life of political power and grandeur of destiny, de- 
votion and patriotism to the Union, w^ould permeate the whole land 
north and south, east and west. Such also has been the expression 
of 3^our own Governor, of whom I have heard so much of praise. 

It is this faith, this devotion to the American Union, that I desire 
to grow strong and deep in the hearts of the great people destined 
to reside in the states of the valley of the Mississippi. They must 
be united under the banner of the north and south. The lesson of 
the late great struggle between the north and the south fully dem- 
onstrated the existence of an under-life principle in the people of 
this valley to maintain the unity of the states at all hazards. In the 
o-reat presidential contest of 18(i0, the northern states of the vallev 
were united, while the southern states were from the first divided 
in sympathy and opinion. Apart from all convictions regarding 
slavery, the northern states saw in secession an effort to place the 
mouth of the Mississippi under the control of a foreign power. To 
that eflbrt they opposed a resistance more stern and uncompromising 
than that of any other section of the countrj^ To New England, 
that resistance was mainly a matter of sentiment and conviction ; to 
New York or Pennsylvania, of trade ; but to the people of the 
northwest, there was added a sense of imperious necessity, grounded 
upon clear comprehension of the destiny of the great valley. There 
is no argument so strong in favor of the determination of the people 
of this valley to maintain one flag and one constitution over its 
wide domain as that furnished by the late civil war. When even 
Massachesetts and New York filled their quota in part with money. 



— 31 — 

the stjites of thv notlnve.st sout only hiird}- and (k'tenniiietl men, 
whose hearts were in the cause. They went to " hew their way from 
the hikes to the gnlf," and their energy, their spirit, and their 
leaders, tinallj^ turned the scale, and assured the triumph of the 
Union. The divided south was not able to withstund such a spirit 
and such efforts. Regiments from Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Arkansas swelled the Union forces. Throughout the southwest, 
strong as were the feelings of hostility to the East, there Avas a prc- 
fonnd feeling of attraction toward the northwest, and a conviction 
that botli Avere and must of necessity ever be parts of one indivisible 
nationality. 

In this great struggle there thus appeared in I)old relief, both at 
the north and south, that predominatino- and all-controUino- desire 
of the people of the Mississippi Valle}^ to be forever one people, 
under one government and one flag, and Avith a common interest in 
the great river Avhich binds them iudissolubh^ together. That ten- 
dency crippled the power of the confederacy in the southwest, and 
nerved the northAvest to eftbrts AAdiich were irresistable. The oreat 
generals who rose through command of Avestern armies to the charoe 
of the whole contest, owed not more to their oavu high qualiticatious 
than to the indomitable spirit of the soldiers from the nortliAvest, 
with Avhom their earlier victories Avere Avon and their boldest con- 
ceptions realized, and their regulations established. It Avas this 
tendency to union, [)ervading the population of the Mississippi Valley, 
from the Lake of the Woods to the Balise, Avhich decided the struo-o-le. 
Unquestionabl}' there was much bitter hostility to the union in the 
southAA^est, but it never commanded unanimous sympathy ; an element 
strong in numbers CA^eryAAdiere cherished attachment to the people 
of the northAvest, and open unionism l)lazed out every Avhere Avhenever 
opportunity ofl'ered. Even with the most bitter, there Avas a secret 
conA^ction that disunion in the great valley was simply an impossi- 
bility ; and those Avho fought most resolutelj' AA'ere inspired by des- 
peration rather than hope. Thus to the secret heart of the Mississippi 
Valley is due that unconquerable unionism Avhich three presidents 
from that valley have represented in their lives and deeds ; and noAV 
that the only cause of division is removed forever, Ave may rest 
assured that the united people of the valley Avill henceforth neither 
propose to divide the union themseh-es, nor suft'er anybodA^ else to 
divide it. Perpetual union of nationality l)ecomes henceforth the 
law of their political life. 



— 32 — 

A review of the political liistoiy of the valley shows that its future 
policy will be iu uo sense sectional, but in the. truest and broadest 
sense national, because it must seek the real and permanent pros- 
perity of the whole country. Bound to all other sections by the 
closest ties of blood, of trade and of mutual interest, the people of 
the oreat central basin can never cherish animosity towards those of 
the Atlantic or Pacific slope, nor do injustice to any other section 
without a sacrifice of their own interests. Will any demagogue seek 
to arouse hostility to eastern manufacturers or capital? The people 
of the valley will remember that the east consumes much of their 
grain, and that prosperity at the east means a better market for 
aoricultural products. The eastern and middle states, it is possible, 
mioht fail to comprehend the best interests of the south. But the 
central valley, embracing within itself seven of the southern states, 
must appreciate their needs, and, bound to them by perpetual inter- 
dependence as producer and consumer, its northern states must 
constantly study to promote the interest of the southern. Thus it 
is that the rights of all other portions of our country must be safely 
fi^uarded, and the interests of all steadily protected, where the power 
rests with the great central section which represents all others in 
lineage, and is bound to all others l)y mutual interdependence. 

Not less clear is it that the polic}^ of the Mississippi Valley must 
be one of equal justice to all races and creeds, and of liberal welcome 
to immigrants from all nations of the earth. Already every nation- 
ality has its representatives in the cosmopolitan population of the 
valley. The original stock from eastern states has been modified 
by admixture with the English and the Irish, the German and the 
French, the Norwegian and the Italian, the Chinese and the African, 
so that retaining its native energy and progressive spirit, it has lost 
altogether that exclusiveness of feeling, of which traces were seen in 
the earlier New England colonies. Already representing all races 
and creeds, the valley fully appreciates its need of unlimited supplies 
of labor for all classes, the most intelligent and enterprising, as well 
as the most unskilled and cheapest, for the development of its 
varied and inexhaustible resources. No party or faction can ever 
arise in the Mississippi Valley which, by the policy it advocates, 
would seem to repel immigrants of any class, without meeting swift 
and overpowering resistance from the great body of the people. 
Nor can such a policy, strongly rejected by the people of the valley 
themselves, be tolerated if proposed for the national government. 







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The national policA^ when shaped b}- the people of the great inte- 
rior basin, must embrace as one of its essential fetitures a coini)re- 
hensive system of improvements for the interior water cliannels of 
our country. In pro})ortion as the irreat states of llit- interior, 
adapted by nature in so remarkal)le a degree for agrienlturc, become 
more fnlly settled and cultivated, the surplus products of these states 
will enormousl}' increase. Herfce, to these interior states the ques- 
tion of cost of transportation Avill be one of controlling importance, 
nor Avill it be less important to the densely populated manufacturing 
states. The prosperity of these must largely depiMid upon the 
cheapness of food, because in all manufacturing operations, the cost 
of production is materially affected by the cost of living, by which 
the v;ages of labor are regulated. To secure the amplest and the 
cheapest possible facilities for transportation from the great food- 
producing region of the interior outward in every direction, thus 
becomes an essential feature of a truly national policy, and it is in 
this direction that the people of the Mississip[)i Valley will doulitless 
concentrate their efforts more speedily than in any other, lieing 
pushed thereto l)y the necessities of agriculture. 

Finally, a great nation (k'stined by its inventive and intlu>trial 
skill, its vigorous enterprise, and its unsurpassed mineral and other 
resources, to become the workshop of the world, as it is likewise 
destined, by its advantages of >oil, climate, and natural water 
channels penetrating its food-producing region, to become the granary 
of the Avorld, must seek commercial reciprocity with the regions 
which naturally offer a market to its products. Thus the foreign 
|)olicy of the United States will only l»e truly national when it seeks 
free entrance to the i)orts of the West Indies, of Mexico, and of 
Central and South America. To this poli(T, also, the people of the 
Mississippi Valley will l)e impelled by their interest as food-producers. 

The material interests of the })eople nnist grow out of these co- 
operative interests of the present and future millions who are to reside 
in this valle}^ and upon the two great slopes of the continent. \'iewed 
in the light of the present and the future, the organic reiation> of this 
people is immeasurable in its social and commercial importance. They 
are bound too'cther in the closest relations, and are destined to fatali- 
ties and results continental in their character. No European or Asiatic 
monarch ever ruled a people having so great a present, and the prom- 
ise of so great a destinv. But the importance of the mateiial 
interests of the American people is intensitied when we consider their 
political and moral interest. When we come t(x consider these we 



— Si- 
have tirst to consider the vahie of the American Union and the vahie 
of constitutional government. AU-eady it has been demonstrated to 
enlio'htened mankind that the American Union emljodies more that is 
vahiable in civil government than the philosophers and^statesmen of 
other lands have been able to contrive for the use of man. The 
laro-est personal and public liberty possi1)le, under the rule of positive 
law, has been granted to the citizen,»and the held of the law aiibrds 
equal protection to all. 

The whole story of the human race is the record of a struggle for 
supremacy over the earth, a struggle for sovereignty over the soil and 
the sovereignty and right of the individual in the community. On 
this continent man has achieved this high end. This mastery'of the 
individual is the expression of sovereignty over the monopoly of 
despotic power. Here the law-giver infinitely transcends alljDrevious 
achievements in human legislation. 

The right of the citizen, under the organic law of this nation, to 
stand equal in the community to the highest official of the govern- 
ment, presents to the world a new liberty given to mankind ; a new 
function delegated to the individual, superior in its exercise to any 
previous civil power known to nations. It is the acknowledgment of 
man's equality before the law of man, as before the law of God. 

The organization of the American Union was a sublime achieve- 
ment of the human race. It was an advance on all previous forms 
of human government. Its constitution disposed of autocrats, of kings 
and monarchs, and made the people sovereign. The constitution 
lifted the human race to a plane of sublime dignit}^ It presents two 
great ideas to the human understanding, one, the recognition of the in- 
dividual sovereignity of man ; the other, the universal fatherhood of God. 

To perpetuate a nation formed under such a constitution must be 
the highest duty of the American people. The fate of many mil- 
lions, living and yet to be, of strong men and earnest women, hangs 
on the fate of this nation. Shall we maintain the nation, or shall 
we be ind liferent to its existence? If we be patriots let us look wisely 
to the future ; let us truly realize that here in this great valley of 
the Mississippi is growing up a power unknown to the human race ; 
the only power that can in the future maintain constitutional gov- 
ernment on this continent. 

Individuals are transient and local, l)ut this nation represents not 
only the welfare of many millions of the world's people, but in a 
broader sense the world's civilization, and all things personal, all 
things local, must ,be yielded to the one great interest of the whole 



— 35 — 

people of the imtioii. I have endeavored to present to yon the 
fundamental truths upon which the prosperity of the people of this 
countr}^ and the perpetuity of this nation rests, and I ask of von as 
citizens and patriots to look Avisely to the future in all your eflbrts 
for commercial and national welfare. I appeal to experience ; I 
appeal to reason. I am willina" to cancel all the past and intei-rogate 
the incoming century upon the material and national prosj)crity 
of the American people — upon the destiny of the people of this 
great valley of the Mississippi. Then, standing as we do at a juvot 
point in history, with one century in the life of the nation closhig 
behind us, and looking down through the years of the incoming 
century, let us all rise above everything local and sectional, let us 
rise above the memories of the north and south of the past, and 
like patriots around a soldier's grave bury the sad recollections of 
days gone 1)v. Let us })ut away in our libraries as things of the 
past, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the •' Lost Cause," the ''Helper 
Book" and "Cotton is King." Let us no longer boast that the 
nation has written its mightiest deeds of war in the l)lood of its own 
citizens. Tell me no more that your dead of the south are the con- 
federate dead ; that the dead of the north are the federal dead ; I will 
answer that they are all American dead, and the American Union be- 
lono-s alike to all the li\''inir. Over all the o;raves of the dead floats the 
same flag, and over the homes of all the living, kindred and friends, 
now rules the same all-powerful eonstitution. Tnrn which way we may, 
east, west, north and south, the same great impersonal heart of 
America beats for the life of all. Look across the turpid waters of the 
great continental river, where death has recently scourged towns and 
cities like a pagan plague, there the warm heart of the American 
people, and the great national heart, rallied to the rescue, and 
humanity we})t over the dead and the dying. 

Asleep are the ranks of tlie dead, 

Under the sod and tlie dew, 
Waiting tlie Jndginent day. 

Let US teach the same lessons of patriotism to all the children of the 

Republic. Let us go forward to the duties which the second century 

in our national life is about to impose upon us : and with united 

hands, hearts and purposes, consummate on this land all the divine 

aspirations of the human soul. Made strong by the new law and the 

new liberty which this nation has given to the Avorld, let us make 

the new life of this people in the generations yet to be a perfect 

fultillment of the apocalyptic vision, by the creation on this continent 

of a new heaven and a new earth. Let us of the north and south 



— 36 — 

strike hands beneath the banner of peace, and take a new departure 
in that battle of life destined to bring comfort and prosperity to 
home and friends, to people and nations. The duty lies before us 
all ; will we neglect to do our part? We cannot. 

I want no modern Asiatic conqueror ; no Shen-his-Kan or Tamer- 
hine ; no European Attilla or Alaric from *'the populous north" 
toJedwi of the follies and failures of our people, and let loose with 
locust legions and candid power to swarm the fertile plains of the 
sunny south. No obstacle lies in the way of our inheritance being 
perpetual peace and prosperity. 

The supremacy of the republic among the nations of the world, 
depends upon the superiority of the life-deeds of the Saxon- American 
people, and no matter what tendency political parties may take in the 
future, a new life is now growing upon the nation that will revolu- 
tionize the old order of things, b}^ the establishment of a new 
commercial and political life upon this continent. 

To talk about the reconcilliation of all parts of the country to the 
central government, bj^ the so called "policy" of any President, as 
long as the national capital remains at Washington, is to talk in the 
most absurd manner. Nothing will reconcile all the sections of a 
continental nation, h'ing inider diverse climates, but a continental 
capitol fixed in the heart of the nation, and from whence the federal 
laws will reach with equal vigor to every part of the wide domain of 
the country, and to which every part will constantly contribute new 
life and growth. The capital thus fixed in some central and appro- 
priate place in the Valley of the Mississippi, the nation will throb 
with a new life in the future, and each diverse section of our common 
country, and the people of every state, yielding to an irresistable law 
of political attraction, will seek a new life in becoming a part of the 
great whole. All the ideas and all the issues involved in the subject 
of the north and the south, emlirace the subject of the political 
harmony of the American people, their material prosperity, their 
future growth and greatness, and the perpetutity of the American 
nation. Standing upon the foreground of the new century, I see 
with the eyes of Cassandra, the morning twilight of a rising, mightier 
age ; I see America moving forward to her predestined position in 
the aflfairs of the world, as mistress of nations ; I see her future 
greatness built upon the principles of nature and the inherent rights 
of man, each yielding to a law of physical and mental attractions ; I 
see growing upon the Western Hemisphere, upon the new world, the 
great people and the great nation of futurity. 



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